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SUCCESSFUL ACQUISITION OF
NOLINA PEAK
In May 2007, the Mojave Desert Land Trust completed its purchase
of Nolina Peak. Over 450 individuals gave a total of $90,000
toward the acquisition. A conservation foundation was impressed
by the response of Land Trust members, as well as the outstanding
qualities of Nolina Peak, and contributed $700,000 to close
the deal.
Joshua Tree National Park has initiated the steps needed
to incorporate Nolina Peak into the Park. The National Park
Service indicated that "acquisition of the property will
enhance resource protection of adjacent park areas, as well
as expand the public’s opportunities to enjoy the view
shed and open space." The transfer of Nolina Peak is
expected to be completed during the first half of 2008.
Most people recognize Nolina Peak because of the tall communication
tower located on a one-acre site at the top. It is reached
by going south on La Contenta from Highway 62 in Yucca Valley,
California.
The 639-acre parcel rises to an elevation of 4,890 feet.
Its vegetation includes: Joshua trees, Pinyon pines, Junipers,
Nolina, Mojave yucca, scrub oaks, and a wide variety of cacti,
brush, and grasses. Keep your eyes open-desert bighorn sheep,
mule deer, coyotes, bobcat, and cougar visit the site.
Desert naturalist, Pat Flanagan, reports that Nolina Peak
is home to Mountain Quail. The Audubon and the American Bird
Conservancy Watchlist 2007 (http://web1.audubon.org/science/species/watchlist)
includes the Mountain Quail on its "yellow" species
list of birds that are either declining or rare. This bird
is unique in the quail family because it makes seasonal migrations
up and down the slopes of mountains. Urbanization is its greatest
threat, and the protected status of Nolina Peak will help
ensure its future in Joshua Tree National Park.
Nolina Peak is informally named for the presence of very
old stands of Parry nolina, Nolina parryi, a desert
member of the Lily family. To quote Elizabeth Van Zandt, retired
interpretive specialist for Joshua Tree National Park:
"...look for these plants
with their stiff, sword-like leaves that spring fountain-like
from a wide base rosette.... the female flowers have
large, showy bracts that can range in color from ivory
through pale rose or green. These bracts tend to last
in a golden papery form for months, leading people to
believe they are in bloom much of the year. They are
definitely the showpieces of Nolina Peak." |
The acquisition of Nolina Peak creates a permanent open space
break between the communities of Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree.
Under its immediate zoning classification more than 15 homes
could have been constructed on the site. Now it will form
a scenic frame around the developing southeast quadrant of
Yucca Valley and act as a protected wildlife habitat for the
enjoyment of visitors to the park and the maintenance of a
healthy biodiversity throughout the area.
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Bray Property, Lanfair Valley
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JOSHUA
TREE NATIONAL PARK,
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK,
&
MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE
Land Trust Administers Grants
for Inholding Acquisitions
The Mojave Desert Land Trust is acquiring private land holdings
within Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park,
and Mojave National Preserve. A conservation foundation is
supplying funds for the acquisitions. Since receiving the
initial grant in late 2006, the Land Trust has closed 54 acquisitions
of land totaling over 5,300 acres. More acquisitions are currently
in escrow. The acquired lands are ultimately conveyed to the
National Park Service for the permanent protection of their
natural and cultural assets.
The Trust is working closely with land consultant Shelton
Douthit, of Shelton Douthit Consulting. They provide many
years of experience in acquisition management for land trusts.
The consulting team asks landowners within the parks, on behalf
of the Land Trust, if they are willing to sell their parcels
at fair market value. When willing sellers are identified
Douthit’s team facilitates the purchase.
These land acquisitions have several important advantages
for the preservation and protection of our desert wildlands.
First, the national parks are our most experienced land managers
for the conservation of land. By consolidating holdings within
the national parks, this conservation administration is more
effectively and efficiently managed. Second, many of these
inholdings are sensitive lands for cultural resources, scenic
values, wildlife habitat, and wildlife corridors.
Skilled preservation of these added lands helps to maintain
the vital biodiversity that is needed for healthy ecosystems.
It is expected that these acquisitions will become even more
important as we experience the effects of climate change.
One recent acquisition of 320 acres is located in the Mojave
National Preserve. This land links the pinyon-juniper highlands
of the New York Mountains with the Watson Wash drainage and
is an important wildlife corridor. The site also possesses
habitat for plants and animals, and is the location of an
historic homestead.
Acquisition of these inholdings requires ongoing skilled
professional stewardship by the Land Trust. The first group
of 31 enthusiastic volunteer stewards attended training at
Joshua Tree National Park in October 2007. Shelton Douthit
and selected staff from the Park conducted the classes. The
volunteers acquired skills in the use of handheld GPS Global
Positioning Units, monitoring of properties for cultural resource
protection, and landscape, plant, and animal preservation.
They also received training in recording threats to the landscape
from garbage dumping, illegal intrusions, landscape alteration,
and invasive plants.
The establishment of baseline climate conditions, and the
measurement of changes to that condition over time, will assist
in our understanding of the effects of climate change in the
desert. It is nice to know that these lands are being protected
forever.
First Stewardship class in Joshua Tree National
Park, October 2007.
|
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The
Mojave Desert Land Trust
Our Mission:
To protect the Mojave Desert ecosystem and its scenic and
cultural values.
The Mojave Desert Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) public charity.
| Board
of Directors:
Claudia Sall
John Simpson
Jane Smith
Danny Sall
Mindy Kaufman
|
The
Mojave Desert Land Trust
6847 Adobe Road
P.O. Box 207
Twentynine Palms, CA 92277
Phone: 760.361.6401
Fax: 760.367.2266
info@mojavedesertlandtrust.org
www.mojavedesertlandtrust.org |
SAWTOOTH FIRE
Educational Response
In July of 2006, the Sawtooth Fire complex raged through
the desert along the flanks of the San Bernardino Mountains.
Recognizing that the desert was now facing new fire regimes,
complicated by changing climate patterns and years of invasive
plant growth, the Land Trust initiated a public education
program in the schools. The National Park Service, the NPS
Fire Department, Wildlands Conservancy, and the High Desert
Living Arts Center joined the Land Trust in visiting every
school in the Morongo Basin. Over the next year, the students
learned about the causes of fires, the increased risk of fires
due to invasive grasses and brush, how to prevent and report
fires, and how to restore the lands that have been burned.
One important lesson was to avoid clearing the land after
a fire. The burned trees and brush, if left in place, provide
a new home for animals and a maximum opportunity for vegetation
to get a fresh start.
LOS ANGELES
DEPARTMENT
OF WATER AND POWER
Another Land Grab in the Desert Wilderness
In 1974 Jack Nicholson and Faye
Dunaway starred in Chinatown, an action thriller
which told the story of Los Angeles’ theft of water
in the Owens Valley, destruction of an important agricultural
economy, and unscrupulous promoters of Los Angeles real estate.
The "bad guys" were the predecessors to today’s
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Their efforts left
behind abandoned farms and homesteads, empty school houses,
dry ditches, and a huge dry lake bed which continues to be
a major micro dust polluter throughout the West, in defiance
of numerous court orders.
Charges are now flying that DWP is at it again, although
this time it is a grab for a power line corridor rather than
water. In December 2006, DWP submitted an application to the
Bureau of Land Management for a new 500kV electrical transmission
corridor. They claimed to have consulted with the County of
San Bernardino as well as the Wildlands Conservancy, the land
manager for wilderness in the area. No such consultation took
place.
When news of the pending acquisition became public in March
2007, the local reaction was anger at the lack of consultation,
and serious concern about its far-reaching effects on the
scenic, cultural, and natural values of the land.
DWP’s plan is misnamed the "Green Path North"
project. It will carve a wide 85-mile swath of disturbed land
from a starting point northeast of Palm Springs, across the
Big Morongo Canyon Wildlife Preserve to Yucca Valley, and
north through the wilderness to connect with the existing
power grid in Hesperia. Over 30 miles of additional access
and construction roads would be built. It is not a green path.
The Land Trust provided organizational assistance to a citizens
action group, the California Desert Coalition (CDC), which
sprang up in opposition to the Green Path Notrh project. Initial
opposition by the County and by local towns and organizations
is focused on the apparent failure of DWP to consider effective
alternatives to destroying these sensitive and "protected"
lands.
Wildlife habitat would be destroyed, wildlife corridors would
be fragmented and divided, view sheds for hundreds of miles
would be scarred by giant towers, major systems of soil erosion
would be created, and private property owners would lose the
enjoyment of their land. Visit www.cadesertco.org
and www.stopgreenpath.com
for more information.
The Land Trust is working throughout the region to bring
this issue to the public. It is also working with The Land
Trust Alliance and other national organizations to bring reason
and long-range planning to this nation-wide energy "feeding
frenzy."
As for our region and the LADWP: Desert wild areas will not
become the dumping ground for Los Angeles’ search for
inefficient and cheap solutions to energy problems, particularly
when sound alternatives are available. Chinatown
will not be repeated.
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“When we got the news [a DWP
survey marker had been secretly
installed near their home] we were
pretty devastated.”
– Pamela Galvin and Steve
Molton
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Download/view the newsletter:
Summer 2008 (pdf)
Winter 2007-08 (html)(pdf)
Spring 2007 (html)(pdf)
Winter 2006-07 (html)(pdf)
Fall 2006 (pdf)
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